Lets talk briefly about what defines a good sports photograph or for that matter any photograph! You do!!! Unless you’re attempting to sell your photos to major publications you are the sole judge of your photographs!!! How cool is that! Nobody else has to like your photo but you!
Every photographer sees the image first in his “minds eye”. He then attempts to capture or create that image. Photographic conflict occurs when the image you see cannot be created with the camera you own. Get to know your equipment and understand its limitations. This will help you know what you can and cannot do !
In sports photography often the goal is to freeze action. To accomplish this you need to understand shutter speed and the relationship to aperture setting also referred to as F/stop. A lower f/stop like F/2.8 denotes a wider aperture opening thereby allowing more light to enter.
A higher F/stop like F/22 denotes a narrower opening allowing less light to enter the camera.
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Many Cameras have a pre-programed setting for sports that will maximize this relationship automatically giving you that cameras best combination of shutter speed and aperture. For those of you have a manual mode on the camera, take some photos of anything that moves with different aperture and shutter speed combinations. You will quickly become aware of the relationship. Practically speaking you can shoot higher shutter speeds with lower F-Stop numbers.
This does take practice. You can photograph birds in your back yard or cars moving down the street. Try and freeze the motion using different shutter -aperture combinations. This practice will payoff handsomely when its game time and you want to get the shot! For those who do not have the ability to adjust settings, do the same thing, photograph objects in motion with your available settings and find out which one you like the best! Remember to get as close as you can to your subject and fire away. In no time you will be getting the results you want!
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